cover image Five Little Pumpkins Came Back

Five Little Pumpkins Came Back

Dan Yaccarino. HarperFestival, $6.99 (16p) ISBN 978-0-06-284021-9

In a companion to Five Little Pumpkins, the gourds (each with a carved jack-o’-lantern face) return. Yaccarino offers a variation on the popular nursery rhyme, counting from one to five with bold blue and orange Halloween- and harvest-themed art. But it’s not ghosts that make the pumpkins anxious to roll out of town: “The fourth one said,/ ‘I don’t want to be a pie!’/ So the fifth one said,/ ‘Goodbye!/ Goodbye!/ Goodbye!’ ” Yaccarino offers just the right mix of humor and scares for the very youngest readers. Ages up to 4.[em] (July) [/em]